Acrobat PDF | CSS | DHTML | DMS | DOM | ECMAScript | ETA | GIF | HTML | JPEG | Macromedia Director | Macromedia Flash | Metadata | MPEG | MP3 | ODBC | PNG | RDF | SGML | SQL | SVG | Tiff | Unicode | WML | Xforms | XHTML | XML | XSL

Adobe® Acrobat® PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF) is a proprietary scalable vector graphic file format from Adode® where developers can produce images of documents preserving the original appearance of the document. The documents thus produced retain their appearance whether on screen or on paper. It is now also possible to annotate pdf files and produce interactive web forms.
Acrobat® Reader™ is required to read pdf files.

CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style language which allows web developers to define more precisely the appearance and positioning of elements on the page. This is achieved by attaching specific styles to element types, self defined classes or individual element instances.
The CSS 1.0 became a W3C recommendation on the 6th of December 1996. It describes the CSS language as well as a simple visual formatting model. CSS2, which became a W3C Recommendation in May 1998, builds on CSS1 and adds support for media-specific style sheets (e.g. printers and aural devices), downloadable fonts, element positioning and tables. CSS3 is currently under development.

DHTML
Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (DHTML) is a combination of three separate technologies; HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Using DHTML it is possible to create low bandwidth multimedia effects such as animations, but can also be used to create on-line applications and games. DHTML is supported in browsers 4.0 and above in Navigator and Explorer or any other JavaScript enabled browser. Although the component technologies of DHTML are standardised, the implementation of Netscape and Microsoft differ. Cross-browser compatibility of DHTML implementations remains a programming ostacle. On the other hand, DHTML requires no third party plug-in and runs wholly on the client.

DMS
Where documents of diverse formats are stored together and where concerns such as access rights, consistent layout, search capabilities and document versions are an issue a structured, methodological preparation of the material is essential.

For example a letter consists of a letter head, an opening, an addressee, a body and a closer. These can be said to be components of the document letter. Clearly many of these components are re-usable; so why not re-use them ? Instead of always making a header for your letter each time, you could store it just once, and then call that document component each time you needed it. It's as simple as that!

Individualised information and interface.
A dynamically composed document management system can employ different document components for each user, use or implementation; think of a teaching system where the information displayed to the user is matched to their knowledge level. The information and the interface can be optimised for each individual user!

Easy maintenance: Maintenance of your information is also vastly improved. Not only can you keep track of document versions, style and content are separated too. In order to change the appearance or the layout of documents, for example the letter type and size of the body in our letter example above, you no longer have to laboriously wade through every letter that you have in order to change each one's size and type face individually. You can change this in a single central location and the change will be reflected throughout the entire set of documents. Document components can thus aslo be used in many different places with different styles allowing flexible user interfaces tailored to the individuals needs.
Integrating databases offers the possiblity of implementing fast and more importantly, structured search facilities which go beyond simple full text searches which most search engines on the web offer. Access rights and document version governing can also be controlled through database application.
At the Electronic Text Centre Leiden we are working the development of a document component management system wherein the integration of industry and web standards has a high priority. The standards applied naturally differ according to the document environment.

Examples
Content Enrichment: Scholarly texts can be effectively encoded in the structure developed by the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) in the TEI DTD (Document Type Definition). Once a decision has been made on the implentation of the DTD's a structured work ethic must be implemented by the Leiden University. For scholars to mark up their texts in TEI conformance predefined templates will be provided and workshops and courses are planned to support the integration of TEI into individual workflow.

Metadata:  
So too will the need for metadata require the attention of the Leiden community for describing document content, authorship, editorship and a host of other relevant descriptive attributes. Within the Leiden University agreement must be reached on the implementation of metadata (see the DONOR initiative of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek).

DOM
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 is a platform- and language-independant interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents. The Document Object Model provides a standard set of objects for representing HTML and XML documents, a standard model of how these objects can be combined, and a standard interface for accessing and manipulating them.
The DOM Level 2 is made up of a set of core interfaces to create and manipulate the structure and contents of a document and in addition there are a set of optional modules. These modules contain specialized interfaces dedicated to XML, HTML, an abstract view, generic stylesheets, Cascading Style Sheets, events, traversing the document structure, and a range object.

ECMAScript
ECMAScript is a standardized scripting language, based largely on Netscape's JavaScript and Microsoft's JScript. ECMAScript, like JavaScript and JScript is used to manipulate the objects in Web pages which are specified by the Document Object Model (DOM). The objects (lements which make up Web pages, or the Web page in its entirety) can then be added to, deleted, moved, or have their properties changed. This lets Web developers implement such effects as animated text, graphic roll-overs, and pages that change based on user input without having to be reloaded.

ETA
An Electronic Text Archive (ETA) referes to the preservation and storage of digital information resources. Information is ideally encoded in platform independent, standardised formats for stability and longevity. Digital archives (also refered to as digital libraries) facilitate the management and searching of large collections of electronic documents. Information can more easily be reused for other media, productions or research. A document management system (DMS) is employed as a technical infrastructure in realising such an archive.
Digital archives can contain not only text but static images, video, audio or any other media that is stored digitally.
Consult the TEI Guidelines produced by the ETCL for instruction on how textual documentation may be encoded in TEI for use in a digital archive.
Consult Elektronische tekstarchieven op het Internet (1999) by Manja Koomen on the design and construction of Digital libraries on the Web. (Dutch)

GIF
Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), pronounced djif is one of the two most popular image file formats on the web, the other being JPEG. The GIF compression algorithm, owned by Unisys, requires companies which exploit the GIF format in their products to obtain a license from Unisys. Strictly speaking, users of GIF images are also required to obtain a license which Unisys says does not necessarily involve a fee.
Gif images are limited to 256 colors, thus GIF is best used for displaying simpler graphics. Two versions of the GIF format are available, 87a and the 89a variant making animation, interlacing and transparency possible.
A patent free file format, PNG, has been developed by the W3C as a replacement for the gif image format.

HTML
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a widely used markup language on the Web to add structure to text documents. HTML documents can be identified by the .html or .htm file extension. Web browsers interpret the markup in the document to display the document in a way which is comprehensible to the user. For example the <h1>...</h1> tags are displayed by browsers in a large font to indicate a top level heading, the tags <strong>...</strong> are usually displayed as bold text.
Since its introduction HTML has undergone numerous changes and expansion of its capabilities. The current version of HTML, version 4.01, will be the last version of HTML in the current form. It's successor XHTML 1.0 became an official W3C recommendation on the 26th of January 2000.

JPEG
The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) file format is best used for colour rich images such as photographs. JPEG images can contain up to 16 million colours and can be compressed by any specified amount, however, since it is a lossy format the more you compress the file the greater the loss of image quality. Besides the GIF image format, JPEG is the most popular on the web.
Formally, the JPEG file format is ISO standard 10918.

Macromedia® Director®
Director® is a multimedia development package from Macromedia®. Director was originally aimed at the CD-rom market but with the growth of the internet Macromedia® repositioned the product in the web sector. With Director® it is possible to create complete interactive multimedia websites or cd-rom productions.
Director® requires a plug-in for browsers, available free of charge from the Macromedia® site, when content is delivered over the web or a stand alone projector can be created for cd-rom productions or for download. When delivered through the web the file format is known as Shockwave which should be clearly distinguished from Macromedia's other major multimedia packages output format, namely Flash's Shockwave Flash®.
A high degree of interactivity and programability can be achieved in Director®, to the point where it is possible to make complete applications such as word processors, drawing boards and games with Director® which can be made available online, in a website.

Macromedia® Flash®
Flash® is Macromedia's second major multimedia development application for web authors. At first the possibilities of Flash® were restreicted to "makeup" such as animation with a lower level of interactivity possible than with Director®, although more than enough to satisfy most web surfers. With the release of Flash® 4 the development possibilities of Flash® have been considerably extended, for example the Generator® object which allows Flash® to interact with a database backend. Flash® 5, recently released, includes support of XML support...
Flash® is a vector animation package which has the advantage of producing very small file sizes. It is also streamable meaning that it Shockwave Flash files start playing immediately as the file downloads, in contrast to Director® where the entire file must be downloaded before the file plays.
Flash® requires a plug-in available free of charge from the Macromedia® site. The plug-in is included in newer releases of both Netscape Navigator® and Internet Explorer®.

Mpeg
Moving Picture Experts Group standards 1-4 (MPEG), is the name of a family of standards used for coding audio-visual information (e.g., movies, video, music) into a digitally compressed format developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group.

MP3
Mpeg-1 audio layer-3 (MP3) files have recently become a very popular format for distributing audio files over the internet. MP3 is currently the most powerful algorithm in a series of audio encoding standards developed under the sponsorship of the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and formalized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Although MP3 is a lossy compression method it succeeds in preserving the original level of sound quality when it is played, while compressing a sound sequence into a very small file (about one-twelfth the size of the original file).

ODBC
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard or open application programming interface (API) for accessing databases. By using ODBC statements in a program, files can be accessed in a number of different databases, including Access, dBase, DB2, Excel, and Text. In addition to the ODBC software, a separate module or driver is needed for each database to be accessed. The main proponent and supplier of ODBC programming support is Microsoft.
ODBC is based on and closely aligned with the standard Structured Query Language (SQL). It allows programs to use sql requests that will access databases without having to know the proprietary interfaces to the databases. ODBC handles the sql request and converts it into a request the individual database system understands. ODBC was created by the sql Access Group and first released in September, 1992. Although Microsoft Windows was the first to provide an ODBC product, versions now exist for UNIX, OS/2, and Macintosh platforms as well.

PNG
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is an extensible file format for the lossless, portable, well-compressed storage of raster images. PNG provides a patent-free replacement for gif and can also replace many common uses of tiff. Indexed-color, grayscale, and truecolor images are supported, plus an optional alpha channel for transparency. Sample depths range from 1 to 16 bits.
Newer browsers will support the use of PNG images.

RDF
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) integrates a variety of web-based metadata activities including sitemaps, content ratings, stream channel definitions, search engine data collection (web crawling), digital library collections, and distributed authoring, using xml as an interchange syntax.
RDF metadata can be used in a variety of application areas; for example: in resource discovery to provide better search engine capabilities; in cataloging for describing the content and content relationships available at a particular Web site, page, or digital library; by intelligent software agents to facilitate knowledge sharing and exchange; in content rating; in describing collections of pages that represent a single logical "document"; for describing intellectual property rights of Web pages, and in many others.

SGML
Standard Generalised Markup Language (SGML) is an accepted ISO standard known as ISO 8879: Information processing---Text and office systems---Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), ([Geneva]: ISO, 1986). SGML is an international standard for the definition of device-independent, system-independent methods of representing texts in electronic form. The HTML mark-up language is an implementation of SGML. SGML predates XML which is a streamlined version of SGML for use over the web. SGML should not be confused with a specific markup language, rather it can best be thought of as a meta-language which enables a developer to describe a language of their own. HTML is one such language, other examples are TEI and Docbook, the former is a language developed for marking up scholarly texts the latter for marking up reference books and manuals.

SQL
Standard Query Language (SQL) is a well known and widely accepted database language. It was first developed at IBM in the mid 1970's and was known as SEQUEL2. SQL is a standard interactive and programming language for getting information from and updating a database. Although SQL is both an ANSI and an ISO standard, many database products support SQL with proprietary extensions to the standard language, similar to the manner in which Microsoft and Netscape developed proprietary tags in html. sql allows users to access data in relational database management systems, such as Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Microsoft SQL Server, Access, and others, by allowing users to describe the data the user wishes to see. SQL also allows users to define the data in a database, and manipulate that data.
Queries take the form of a command language that lets you select, insert, update, find out the location of data, and so forth. There is also a programming interface.

SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML application to bring fast loading vector graphics to the web. Comparable to Macromedia Flash®, SVG allows animation and interactivity to be included in an HTML or XML document. A browser plug-in is currently needed to view SVG files as the Adobe SVG Viewer, but this may change as XML-enabled client software enters the market.

TIFF
Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), is one of the most widely supported file formats for storing bit-mapped images on personal computers (both PCs and Macintosh computers). TIFF was designed to be independent of the hardware platform and the operating system on which it executes. TIFF makes very few demands upon its operating environment. TIFF should (and does) perform equally well in both the "IBM PC", Apple Macintosh's environments and UNIX.
The TIFF format was developed in 1986 by an industry committee chaired by the Aldus Corporation (now part of Adobe Software). Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard were among the contributors to the format. It was created to be the industry standard for image-file exchange.

Unicode
The Unicode Standard is the universal character encoding standard used for representation of text for computer processing. Unicode provides a consistent way of encoding multilingual plain text and brings order to a chaotic state of affairs that has made it difficult to exchange text files internationally. The Unicode Standard defines codes for characters used in the major languages written today. Scripts include the European alphabetic scripts, Middle Eastern right-to-left scripts, and scripts of Asia. The Unicode Standard also includes punctuation marks, diacritics, mathematical symbols, technical symbols, arrows, dingbats, etc. It provides codes for diacritics, which are modifying character marks such as the tilde (~), that are used in conjunction with base characters to encode accented or vocalized letters (ñ, for example). In all, the Unicode Standard provides codes for 49,194 characters from the world's alphabets, ideograph sets, and symbol collections. Unicode is required by modern standards such as XML, Java, ECMAScript, WML, etc.

WML
Wireless Markup Language (WML) is an application of XML. WML is read and interpreted by a browser built into a WAP device, such as a mobile phone, palm tops and other hand held devices, which renders information on a display. In the narrow bandwidth world of wireless devices a light weight markup language is needed, which is why WML is used in preference to HTML. With the developments of high bandwidth wireless frequencies this restriction will not be quite as pertinent but we must expect to wait at least another four to five years before UMTS networks are in operation in Europe.

XFORMS
Xforms is being developed as the new generation of web forms, to allow increased flexibility, control and power over user input. Xforms is currently still in development, however the key goals as expressed by the W3C working group are:

• Support for handheld, television, and desktop browsers, plus printers and scanners

• Richer user interface to meet the needs of business, consumer and device control applications

• Decoupled data, logic and presentation

• Improved internationalization

• Support for structured form data

• Advanced forms logic

• Multiple forms per page, and pages per form

• Suspend and Resume support

• Seamless integration with other XML tag sets

Form Markup Language (FML) developed by Mozquito is a step towards the W3C standard Xforms. FML belongs to the family of XHTML document types.

XHTML
EXtensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML)is a family of document specifications and modules that reproduce, subset and extend HTML 4. XHTML family documents are XML based. XHTML 1.0 is the first document type of the XHTML family. It reformulates HTML 4 document types as applications of XML 1.0.

XML
EXtensible Markup Language (XML), unlike HTML is not a markup language with a fixed tag set. XML allows the developer to define their own tags or use someone else's tag set. Because XML is designed to be modular, it is possible to use a number of different tag sets in a single document.
XML was developed as a response to the demand of developers who increasingly discovered that HTML simply did not measure up to their needs. Some applications of XML are already in use such as MathML, FML (a precursor to the official Xforms module), ChemML and XHTML.

The rules of XML allow you to create a markup language relevant to your needs, in a standardised way so that computers and applications can understand the language. Most fifth generation web browsers will offer support for XML in order for XML documents to be directly accesible via the web. However, it is also possible to convert XML documents into HTML on the server and send the generated HTML document to the browser.

XSL
EXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) is the complementary language to XML. XSL consists of two parts;

• a method for transforming XML documents

• a method for formatting XML documents

XSL can be used to format XML documents to display them to the user, similar to what CSS does for both HTML and XML but it can also be used to act as a filter, i.e. transform XML documents into HTML or some other file format. XSL thus provides developers with a powerful mechanism to ensure XML document integrity while being able to reuse the information in many different applications.

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